Less than a month ago, Springfield bid farewell to the now-retired fire commissioner Bernard “BJ” Calvi – a public safety worker with over 30 years of service, from time with the North Adams ambulance service to the Agawam Fire Department and, later, Springfield, where was sworn in as commissioner in 2018.
Among the department achievements he’s proudest of - retooling community outreach and fire prevention efforts, a year without a fire fatality in 2024 and various reforms overseen in-part by his very successor.
“In a city this size, it’s almost unheard of – [to] go a year without losing anybody in in a structure fire,” Calvi said during his retirement announcement on July 8. “… to overhauling the operations division under Deputy Rivera, where we have been working to modernize incident command practices, increase firefighter safety, increase the quality of the equipment we're using to ensure everybody goes home at the end of their shifts….”
Just over three weeks later, Rivera was ceremoniously sworn-in before his peers and family Monday. While he has technically been fire commissioner since Calvi’s last day in late-July, his elevation was front-and-center at Symphony Hall, complete with a massive Puerto Rican flag draped above the entrance way.
“This is a proud moment for the community, [the] Latino community here in the city of Springfield – a proud moment for the Plainfield [Street] area of our North End area,” Sarno said Monday. “It's always important when you are the first in anything that you point that out, because it shows inspiration and opportunities for others to follow in your footsteps.”
Born and raised in the city, Rivera’s been with the department since 2009, serving as a bomb technician for Springfield FD’s Arson and Bomb Squad, as well as a member of its Heavy Rescue team. He would go on to become deputy chief of operations.
This, after growing up in the city’s Brightwood neighborhood – a slice of the city’s heavily-Latino North End, but also a spot that’s effectively segregated from the rest of the city due to the highway and railway that runs through it, says State Senator Adam Gomez.
“I grew up with Miguel as a kid in the North End of Springfield - our parents lived across the street from each other. It's very sweet… I'm just so very happy to see my friend accomplish something that… a lot of folks don't understand how hard it is, coming from the North End and to break through and to break glass ceilings,” the Springfield and Chicopee senator told WAMC after the ceremony. “But outside of that, his integrity is second-to-none. [He], more than you know, deserves this position.”
Springfield State Representative Carlos Gonzalez says, with Rivera, city leadership is a step closer to representing its very makeup.
“The future of this great city is going to rely on the success of everybody, particularly our Latino community, who today represent 55% of this population,” he said. “When you look at potentially 72% of the school department being reflective of the Latino community – it’s going to depend on that. So, Miguel is a shining star - not the first, but definitely not the last to serve in a leadership capacity.”
It’s also been a point of struggle for Springfield in the past. It was only in 2022 that the Springfield Fire Department was released from a decades-long consent decree intended to boost hiring of Black and Hispanic candidates.
By 2022, the department’s staffing was reportedly “56 percent minority,” according to The Springfield Republican newspaper.
Echoing Gonzalez Monday was Ward 1 Councilor Maria Perez, who’s ward includes Brightwood. She added that, hopefully, Rivera’s own success translates to city youth looking to replicate it.
“... they could see faces that look like them and say ‘If he can make it, I can make it,’” she said, describing how the city continues to resemble a “melting pot” as time goes on.
It’s something that’s on Rivera’s mind, the new fire commissioner tells WAMC. For now, his focus is on improving the department, one step at a time.
“I've streamlined certain processes, and I'm continuously looking at new ways and innovative ways to not just train, but to respond to the type of calls that we go to,” he said between taking photos with family members and city officials. “If I can do that with this new generation and get them to start thinking outside of the box and finding bigger and better solutions that make us a little bit more efficient … and continue to operate as safe as we do, then I guess I'm doing my job.”
“I would say my biggest thing is investing in the people, in the training, and providing them with the tools that they need for what comes next,” he continued.
